Fatal accidental shootings soar in Florida

Accidents have historically made up a tiny portion of Florida's roughly 2,300 gun deaths each year, typically about two dozen — or 1 percent.

But that now appears to be changing.

In 2012 that number soared to 115, according to the state agency that tracks gun-death and -injury data. Anthony Lane Jr. was one of those casualties.

The 15-year-old was playing a "Call of Duty" video game with a group of friends at a relative's house in Eatonville on Jan. 15, 2012, when he was shot in the head by his cousin, now 8.

A pearl-handled .22-caliber handgun had fallen out of someone's pocket, and the younger boy picked it up, family members say. According to a police report, the boy told a detective that he pulled the trigger.

The family's version of what happened is more forgiving: The gun went off when the child tried to hand it back, according to the boy's grandmother, Carol White.

"We taught him not to play with guns," she said. "He was really scared. … His main concern was that he was going to get a beating. I told him, 'I'm not going to beat you.' I just grabbed him and hugged him."

Police filed no charges in the case, calling it an accident.

Lane's father, Anthony Lane Sr., rushed to the house and saw his son on a bed, bleeding from the right side of his head.